"SD" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
You can get small coffee roasters that will roast about 55 gm of coffee
at a time. We have one called Fresh Roast. A jiffy-pop (stove top, hand
cranked popcorjn popper) wil also work. As you turn the crank handle,
you will continually keep the beans in motion in order to get an even
roast. The benefit of the coffee roaster is more even heating, it
allows you to adjust for roast color, has a glass roasting chamber so
you can visually check roast color, and it also separates the "silvers"
the outside paper thin "hull" from the roasted beans. If you do it in
the oven, you are going to have to continually stir the beans to keep
the air flowing around them and then sift out the silvers from the
finished beans.
You can also roast in a fcast iron frying pan on the stove top, you
need to get it red hot, smoking before you put the beans in it and then
stir like crazy until they are the desired roast color. They are ready
when they are shiny/oily looking.
Rather than going by colour exclusively, I find it more reliable to check
for 'doneness' according to first crack, second crack etc. As the beans
roast, they will begin to make loud popping sounds. The first one of these
sounds signifies "First Crack" and usually occurs 2-3 minutes into roasting.
About 2 minutes after that, you will hear the Second Crack begin. This
means the coffee is fairly dark already. STOP NOW if you don't want a super
dark roast. I like to stop mine about a minute or so after first crack.
The beans continue to roast for some time while they are cooling so it is
important not to overdo it.
With experience, you'll be able to know how your beans are doing by smell,
sound AND colour.
Using colour as your only marker is tricky as every variety of bean will
produce a slightly different colour even when roasted at the same
temperature.
I find that waiting until the beans are dark and shiny before removing them
from the roaster produces a burnt bean as they do not stop roasting
immediately after they're removed from the roaster.
I STRONGLY reccommend reading the sweet maria's website before roasting.
It's an amazing guide for first time roasters.
They also have a pictoral guide for bean roast colour which includes
aromatic and sound cues for coffee roasting.
http://sweetmarias.com/roasted.pict-guide.html
Quoted message said:As soon as your beans are shiny (that's the oil) on the outside, get
them off the heat and into a colander to cool down. When they are
cooled and the silvers are separated out, store in an airtight
container.
They should be stored in a container that will release the gas for at LEAST
four hours after roasting. Otherwise, the beans will not degas properly and
may taste something nasty.
I usually pop them in whatever container they will ultimately end up in but
leave the lid off over night or for at least 6-8 hours.
-Jay
(by the way, Hello to the newsgroup!)
